Heart to heart
by whatthehell82
Summary: Danny and Jo have a couple of needed heart to heart talks. Lcat14 will be continuing this story for me.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: This is the first time I've written a story in a long time, but a fellow Janny fan & I talked about this on Tumblr. I couldn't get the idea out of my head. It's a two chapter story, I only have the first one written. I injured my hand two years ago and writing & typing causes me a lot of pain. My pain management unit only helps when I'm wearing it, so I will need to rest my hand a bit before I write the next one. **

** This is written in 3****rd**** person, but Jo's thoughts are written in italics bold. **

Later that night after the end of the finale

Jo lays in her bed staring at the ceiling. The light on her bedside table is still on. She sighs and puts her hands over her face, then drops them hard at her sides. A loud groan comes from the girl in the bed. _**Every time I close my**__**eyes it's like it's happening all over again. I can still feel Charlie's arms painfully tight around me, and the cold blade on my neck. I JUST WANT TO SLEEP! I'm so tired, and my head still hurts from whatever Charlie drugged me with.**_Jo gets frustrated with her lack of sleep, and gets up to go into the bathroom. She splashes water on her face then looks in the mirror. She looks down in disgust. She can't even look at her own reflection without remembering her kiss with Charlie. She turns and leaves the bathroom, but when she walks back in her room she sees she is no longer alone. "Danny." Her handsome best friend/crush is standing in front of the window. "I know it's not a door, but …" Before can finish his sentence Jo rushes into his arms and hangs on for dear life. Danny holds her just as tight. He buries his face in her hair. He loves her scent and takes comfort in it. "I couldn't sleep. All I could think about was all the ways tonight could have gone wrong. All the ways I could have lost you." Danny whispered into her hair. "I couldn't sleep either. For some of the same reasons." Jo said as she slowly stepped out of their embrace. Danny was reluctant to let go, but knew he had to.

Jo walked over and sat on her side of the bed. Danny sat down on her right. When Jo takes a deep breath preparing herself to talk again Danny covers her hand with his. Drawing strength from his touch she voices the rest of her thoughts. "I keep thinking about how I could have died tonight. I also keep playing it again and again in my head like a bad movie." She closes her eyes and leans her head back. Danny moves closer. He wants to hold her so bad, but is not sure if it's the right time. He knows she needs to talk about it. "I keep thinking about …" She stops. Then she opens her eyes. Danny can see the tears starting to form in her beautiful blue eyes. "What? What do you keep thinking about?" Danny asks knowing that she needs to get it all out so she can move passed it. "I … I didn't know … I kissed him. After our date. I kissed Charlie." She looks away to ashamed and disgusted with herself to look at Danny. "It turns my stomach to think about it, yet it keeps popping up in my thoughts. He's my half-brother. That's disgusting." It's been a long time since he and Jo used to have heart to hearts, but he knows this is the time to speak up. "You had no way of knowing that. To you he was a nice guy who you had a fun date with." That was hard for Danny to say seeing as the thought of Jo with another guy turned _his_ stomach. "You couldn't have known he would turn out to be crazy and your brother." He says. "You warned me he was crazy. I should have listened to you." She finally looks at him. He sees how sorry she is. "Yes you should have." Jo gives him the 'I can't believe you just said that' look. Danny gives her a little smirk. "But I understand why you didn't. I was acting a little crazy myself. I know you hate it when I say this, but I was just trying to protect you." Jo smiles a little smile. "I do hate it when you say that, but after tonight I might be okay with you protecting me now. You know the whole kicking in the door and trying to talk down the crazy guy with a knife thing." They both laughed a little. It felt good to laugh for both of them. "Yeah, I did that didn't I. You must be pretty special Masterson. I don't play hero for just any girl." He gives her a wink and this most charming smile. The one that always melts her heart. "I sure hope not." She says before a big yawn takes over. Danny also yawns. They are beyond tired after tonight's events. For Jo talking to Danny and just having him close by helps relieve her of the weight of some of her thoughts. The ones keeping her awake. Danny finds his worry for Jo that was keeping him awake start to flow away. Before they knew it they had both fallen asleep.

Next morning

Danny woke up to the sun shining straight into his eyes. Which was strange because that normally didn't happen. He opened his eyes and saw what was different about this morning. He was not in his room. He looked over at the sleeping girl beside him. He smiled. The sunlight made her hair look golden. She looked so beautiful first thing in the morning. He knew he probably didn't look so great. He knew for a fact he always had really bad bedhead. Even when he was a kid and his hair was shorter. He looked over at the clock. 6 am. He better get out of there before her parents wake up. He was about to get up and leave, but couldn't help himself. He kissed Jo on the forehead. He didn't intend to wake her up, but like prince charming his kiss woke her up. That thought made him smile. Could he ever be Jo's prince charming? "What are you smiling about?" A sleepy voice brought him out of his thoughts. "I am thinking about how beautiful you look. Like Sleeping Beauty." He thought that was pretty smooth and charming. Danny was very proud of himself until he heard her snort of laughter. "Oh please. I'm sure I look like crap. What was that like three hours of sleep?" She sat up rubbing her eyes. "Yeah, something like that." Jo looks over at the clock. "Oh, Crap! It's almost 6:30. My Dad will be up soon. He can't find you in here. He might shoot you. It doesn't matter that it was all innocent. He would never let me see you again." Jo starts pushing Danny towards the window. "After last night I have no doubts he would shoot me." Jo stops pushing when they get to the window. "Thanks for last night, but you have to leave!" She opens the window and gestures for him to leave. Before he does Danny leans in and gives Jo a little peck on the lips. "See you later." And with that he was gone. Jo just stands there with a small smile on her face. How can one little kiss make so many bad things seem not so bad anymore?

**AN: I saw a picture of Avan with bedhead, and had to put it in the story. He was so cute.**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: I don't hate Dacey or Lacey. I really like Lacey. I just needed an explanation for why Danny did the things he did. Please don't send me any Dacey or Lacey hate mail. Also Danny may seem like a jerk for what he did to Lacey.**

That same evening

Jo is sitting at the dinner table with her parents. The silence is almost painful. They still have not talked about what happened the night before. Her Mom had spent the day at the hospital with Charlie. Jo isn't sure how she feels about that. Neither does her Dad. Jo was just about to excuse herself when her phone went off. She pulls out her phone. It's a text from Danny. Her mood instantly improves. "Can I go meet Danny at the park?" Her parents were happy for the break in the awkward silence. "Sure, that's fine." Her Mom answered. Her Dad gave her Mom a look, but didn't say anything. "Yeah… thanks. I'm going to go now." Jo awkwardly says as she gets up from the table. She leaves the strained situation they had found themselves in as fast as she can.

McNally Park

When she got to the park Danny was already there waiting for her. Jo walks over to the bench he is sitting on. She sits down without a word. He looks at her and smiles. All the stress of her home situation melts away just at the sight of his sweet smile. "Hi." Danny says as he brushes some of her hair behind her ear. "Hi. You have no idea how happy I was to get your text." He smiles happy to hear that. "Things at home are so weird I really needed to get out of there." His smile turns into a frown realizing she wasn't happy because she wanted to see him. "No. No. I'm also happy to be here with you. I'm sorry I didn't mean to make it sound like that. I am really glad you wanted to get together. I feel like we really didn't get to see each other a lot at school today." Jo tries to apologize when she realizes what she said came out sounding so wrong. "That's okay. I understand. I'm sorry things are so bad at home." He takes her hand. "Thanks. In your text you didn't say why you wanted to meet. What's up?" Danny shifted in his seat a little. "I'm not sure if this is the best time to bring this up, but after this morning I just didn't want to wait to long." He lets out a nervous breath. "What do we need to talk about?" She was getting nervous. Did he want to talk about the kiss? Does he regret it? Everything happened so fast. "We were supposed to talk about us last night, but never got the chance. You said you wanted to talk about us. Did you change your mind?" Jo realized she had been holding her breath. "Oh, yeah. I still want to have that conversation. I just didn't know that's what you were talking about."

Danny moves closer and squeezes her hand "I meant everything I said the other night. It has always been you, Jo. I want to be with you. That kiss this morning was little, but amazing. I haven't stopped thinking about it all day. I don't want to overwhelm you. I know you have a lot going on right now, but I need to know how you feel." Jo is feeling so many different things. Good and bad. She doesn't know how to say what she needs to say. She takes a deep breath and turns so she is face to face with Danny. "You and most of the school know how I feel about you. That hasn't changed." Danny lets out a sigh of relief, and smiles. Jo continues. "But I'm not sure I believe you." Danny is flabbergasted. "What do you mean you don't believe me? I explained it all to you. I have feeling for you. I LIKE you. What more do I need to say to convince you." Jo shakes her head. "No you didn't explain it me. I want to know how you went from having feelings for Lacey to me being 'The One'. I want to know why you told Tyler I was like a sister to you. I want to know why I'm suddenly worth the risk. Because Lacey dumped you? Because she told you that you have feelings for me? I'm sure you can see why I'm having a hard time believing you." Danny is now looking completely defeated. She feels bad for him, but she needs answers from him. "I want to believe you, Danny. I really do, but you have lied so many times. Everything you are telling me is the opposite of what you said a few weeks ago. You have already broken my heart once already. I can't let you do it again." Jo lifted her hand to cup the side of his face. He looks into her eyes. His brown eyes search her blues ones.

"I will explain it the best that I can. Please don't tell Lacey anything I'm about to tell you. I have already hurt her enough." She drops her hand and takes his hand in hers. "I don't want Lacey to be hurt either. I swear I won't say a word." Danny looks down and when he looks up into eyes again he has a very intense look on his face. "Do you remember on my first day of school when I ran into you and Rico at the diner?" She nods. "When you came after me and we talked. I felt like we had a moment. I don't know if you felt it too, but it was there. I know it was. It was invigorating and terrifying at the same time. Everything was already complicated. Having a crush on you was just going to make it worse. I decided to only think of you as a friend. After all it was just one moment. I figured it couldn't be that hard. But after the party, seeing you all drunk & vulnerable I knew it was going to be harder than I thought. I couldn't risk losing you again. It hurt not being with you like that, but I knew from experience it would hurt more not having you in my life at all. After the Drunk driving PSA in the hall Lacey and I had a moment. It wasn't the same as it was with you. I knew that, but I saw that Lacey liked me. Don't get me wrong I didn't want to lose Lacey either, but it wasn't as painful a risk as it would have been with you. It was also nice to know a girl liked me. It felt good and Lacey is beautiful. I also thought focusing my attention on her would help me get over my feelings for you. I never meant to hurt either one of you.

I told Tyler you were like a sister to me because I didn't want to get in the way of your happiness. I wasn't happy about it. I threw myself into making my relationship with Lacey work even more. That's why I threw that stupid party. When Tyler turned out to be a jerk I even tried to convince Rico to tell you about his feelings for you. Jo, your happiness is so important to me. This whole time I didn't even know you felt the same way. I know we flirted a little, but I didn't know you liked me. When you said the stuff at my hearing… you have no idea how good it felt to know you felt the same way. Our talk in the hallway it took all my will power not to tell you how I feel about you." Danny stops trying to gage Jo's reaction, then continues.

"I didn't want to get back together with Lacey, but the two of you kept pushing me. You were pushing me. I told you I wasn't in a good place. Neither one of you would listen to me. I thought you were over me. Lacey wanted me and you didn't. With all the stuff with my Dad I needed to feel loved and wanted. It didn't work like the last time anyway. I kept thinking about you. I really believe that even if the stuff with my Dad had not brought us closer together, I still would have given into my feelings for you eventually. I couldn't fight them forever. Especially since the more I've gotten to know you again the stronger my feelings have gotten. I never said YOU weren't the risk. I said us dating wouldn't be worth the risk of losing our friendship. I still believe that, but I'm not okay with just being friends anymore." Danny takes a deep breath. He is emotionally exhausted from having to explain his emotions and actions. "Do you understand now? Did I answer all your questions?"

She nods her head, then let's go of his hand. She places her hand on the side of his face like before, but this time she pulls him toward her. Once their faces are close enough that their lips are a breath away Jo says. "I'm satisfied with those answers." Then her lips are on his. Their eyes are closed, their minds are blank, and their hearts are full. Jo had always heard that first kisses are magical, but her first kiss with Tyler was not. This kiss was the definition of magical. The kiss from earlier that morning paled in comparison. Her hand slides into Danny's hair pulling him even closer. She can't get enough. Danny puts his hands around her waist. They stop to take a few needed breaths. Danny smirks and says. "Does this mean you will say yes if I ask you to be my girlfriend?" She leans forward and gives him a little peck on the lips. "Yes, I would love to be your girlfriend." He takes her in his arms. He gives her a kiss on the side of her head. "Will you go out with me tomorrow night?" He whispers in her ear. "Yes." She answers blushing a little. She has been waiting so long to hear him say these things. "When I come to pick you up I promise to use the door." He smirks and gives her a little wink. She lets out a little laugh and shakes her head. "Alright, but don't make a habit of it." He laughs. Jo quiets his laugh when she tugs him towards her again and places her lips over his.


End file.
